are several federal judges, including famously an appeals court judge to sit on the appeals court in boston. he is from portland and have been backed by both republican senators. he was part of what they call thurmond's rule. >> thurmond-leahy rule. >> angus king, from maine, claiming the party alignment is up for grabs. his initial request is he would align with whatever party agreed to push for essentially doing away with the current filibuster rules. harry reid made clear he is not willing to go that far. i know still think angus king will align with a democrat. he endorsed obama. >> and he said yesterday he had conversations with him in the past 24 hours. >> and a phone call with bob corker. the point being that this is the kind of thing that i think a lot of freshmen -- king most vocal among them, they will come to the senate and say let us not spend our first months of this silliness of gratuitous filibuster and blocking a holding everything. let's clear out the underbrush. like you are speaking about, who none of us ever heard of. these are assistant secretaries that one or two senat